MOE to tighten teacher-selection process

Chan | my paper | Tue Jan 11 2011

But it will not be mandatory for schools to declare the misconduct of each potential candidate.

THE Ministry of Education (MOE) will tighten its processes in selecting teachers and scholars, but will stop short of making it mandatory for schools to declare the misconduct of each potential candidate, said Dr Ng Eng Hen in Parliament yesterday.

"Obviously, we don't have a foolproof system," he qualified.

The Minister for Education was responding to questions from Members of Parliament (MPs), who asked whether MOE would review its screening criteria and procedures following criminal cases involving a trainee teacher and a former scholar.

Jonathan Wong, 23, was studying at the University of York in Britain on an MOE scholarship when he was convicted of possessing child pornography on his computer.

He was given a suspended six-month sentence last month.

In that same month, trainee teacher Aaron Kok Chun Cheong, also 23, was sentenced to 15 months in jail for having sex with two underage girls in 2007 and 2008.

Dr Ng said that MOE screens all candidates chosen for teaching positions and scholarships against police records, and makes checks with candidates' previous employers or schools, where relevant.

"So we have a fairly robust system, but our screening procedures obviously cannot weed out all unsuitable candidates.

"Moving forward, as we learn from isolated instances, MOE will tighten its selection processes," he said.

It would also assess how to better monitor the academic and non-academic progress of its teaching scholars,he added.

In response to MP Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio GRC), who asked whether the ministry would make it a requirement for schools to declare all records of misdemeanour, Dr Ng said that MOE would still want schools to be the better judge of what goes into a scholarship applicant's testimonial.

Wong was reported to have been caned as a 15-year-old for peeping at girls in primaryschool toilets, but the record for the punishment was omitted from his testimonials.

"I think it's better...for MOE to write to the school to ask them if there is anything in the course of his time in school that they think would not make him suitable as a teacher," Dr Ng said.